Le Mans Start Line Moved

The starting line for the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been moved, the ACO has announced, in an effort to have the majority of the field take the tri-colour on the front-straight.

The “major innovation” will see the the line moved 145 meters (475 feet) further up pit straight, a change that will affect all car and bike races on the Bugatti circuit as well.

“This is a change which, at the moment of the flying start, will enable all the cars to line up on the pits straight when the start is about to be given thus avoiding the situation of having cars in the Ford chicanes when the pack is finally unleashed,” a statement from the ACO read.

The position of the finishing line, however, will not change.

It will result in the 145 meters having to be subtracted from the overall race distance in each event.

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365 as well as the recently launched e-racing365 Web site for electric racing. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com/SPEED Channel, and contributes to other publications worldwide. Contact John

Just move it to after the first chicnae on Hunaudieres straight, add a bunch of aluminium grandstand seating along the straight, eliminate the two chicanes for the first lap. Give the green when the last car is out of Tetre Rouge and have a pure drag race to Mulsanne.

I don’t understand the point of split start/finish lines in F1, and now Le Mans. Why can’t they just use the same line? Is there some FIA requirement that the finish line has to be before or after the pit lane exit?

I think the finish line in Formula 1 must be across from an official FIA box. This is done in the event electronic scoring fails and they need a visual confirmation of the winner. Correct me if this is inaccurate.

In this specific case for lemans, they want the finish line to be before the pit exit because the winner and all the other cars will reenter the pit right after race end. If they go past pit exit they have to go 8 miles and some might will run out of fuel. Imagine the race winner running out of fuel on his cool down lap. The podium celebration would have to wait a while to have them towed back.